My son killed the battery on my '04 XLT by leaving the lights on. I had a buddy give me a jump start the next day. We hooked up, I turned the truck over, and when he removed the cables from his vehicle, my truck abruptly shut down.

We tried again, but now the truck is stone dead. No power anywhere. I hooked the vehicle up to my charger and left it on a slow deep charge overnight. Put the key in the ignition this morning and...nothing. I am getting a rapid ticking noise from the back of the cab. Weird. I checked the fuel pump reset, the fuseable link from the positive battery terminal and some ignition related fuses. Found nothing. My next step may be to replace the battery as it is original. Anyone have any ideas on what may have happened, and what the fix may be?

Many Thanks,

Steve

 

Sounds like to me that the wiring system may have fried, I am not sure but that is what it sounds like. I would check the fuse relay's under the hood and the ones inside the cab. It is very weird that you are not getting any power with a charger on the vehicle. The only other thing that I can think of is that the Positive Battery cable may have fried. I would try and bypass the positive cable lower to the battery, try closer to the junction that goes to the alternater and the rest of the system, and on a personal response I never remove the other car first always mine hope that you find it to be something small and cheap to fix. Good Luck.

 

shutting off when the cables are removed sounds exactly like a shot alternator, but not doing anything after a charge but still clicks points right to a battery. replace the battery at least.
This is gonna sound bad, but did you hook up the charger right? no offense, it happens. Cause if it was backwards and your battery was totally dead its very possible that you reversed the polarity of the battery. It happens more than you'd think. That would explain the no start after the charge.

 

i would replace battery and have alternator tested... sounds like your alt has gave up on you along with the battery

 

To save the possible unneeded purchase of a battery, remove the positive or negative terminal of the battery, reconnect the charger for a reasonable time and then have the battery load tested.

Some people buy new battery when the battery was not the problem.

You could remove and have the alternator tested while the battery is charging.
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Well...started with replacing the old battery with a new 1000 CC amps HD unit. The standard is 650 CC amps. (I live high up in the Rockies) Problem solved. I had a feeling the old one was weak, but I've never known a battery to go from being marginal but useable one second and stone dead the next. Wouldn't even take a charge, on or off the cables.

Thanks for everyone's input. I wish everything turned out to be this simple!

 

if the battery was completely drained down by leaving the lights on it can kill the battery all together, especially if the battery is in marginal condition. Sometimes you can save it by placing it on a long low amp charge, but not always.

next time you place the battery on a low amperage charge you should disconnect both the terminals to ensure that all 2 amps is going to the battery and not feeding any of the trucks electronics.

what battery did you go with and how much did it set you back?